of Addison County A Special Section of the Addison Independent Thursday, October 20, 2016 LEXI CHICKANOSKY AND Scout Hall volunteer with other students in the Mount Abraham Vermont Teen Leadership Safety Program on the Days of Caring.
United forces help make a difference By KATE MCGOWAN Executive Director, UWAC Greetings my comrades in arms! I know that is a surprising salutation — perhaps less so when we consider our arms to be our shared time, voice and treasure. Many of us in the United Way network have been asking “what are we fighting for?” As I listen to you — donors, volunteers, board members and colleagues, I hear a variety of answers: “I’m fighting for housing,” “for nutrition,” “for job readiness,” “for literacy,” “for healthy babies,” “for successful kids,” “for financial literacy,” “for stable households,” “for access to high quality health care,” “for expansion of recovery services,” “for the de-stigmatization of poverty or addiction or mental health issues,” “for aging safely in place” and “for safety.”
LINDA AND IRA SCHIFFER UNITED WAY CAMPAIGN CHAIRS
The Schiffers remind us what it means to be part of a community By LINDA AND IRA SCHIFFER United Way Campaign Chairs 2016-2017 As we take in the beauty of the hills and of the season here in Addison County, we want to express our deep thanks and appreciation to all of you who are engaged in the important work of the United Way. The United Way of Addison County partners with local and state non-profit health and human service organizations, government agencies and the business community, to achieve our goal of creating better lives for all. When children go to school carrying the weight of their parents’ problems, they can’t learn; when a person is working through substance abuse issues, keeping a job can be impossible, aggravating all financial issues, which include food, medicine, transportation
and rent. We know it’s cliché, but we truly believe it takes a community, not just to raise our children, but to offer help and assistance to those in need of some support so they can make a better life for themselves and their children, and reach their fullest potential. We each have our own local charities, projects and religious institutions we support. That’s where we go first to volunteer and give. In addition to these important commitments, none of us can be aware of all the organizations doing the hard work to support individuals and families in our community. United Way is OUR way to support ALL of those efforts. Please join us in making this year’s United Way campaign the success it needs to be, for us to be the community we want to be.
What is the fight that brings all these battles into one united front? I am beginning to see our shared efforts as a fight for opportunity for all. A shared effort to ensure no one slips through the cracks. A shared commitment to invite, encourage and support the easily ignored, dismissed and stigmatized to participate and succeed in our community. A quiet revolution of inclusion in all the promise that living in Addison County Vermont has delivered to so many (but not all) of us. I would love to hear from you directly about what are you willing to fight for. Does the fight I’ve described here resonate with you? I hope I can count on you for your continued support as we enter this, our 48th campaign to fight many battles but more importantly for the unified fight for community-wide participation and success.
Donors, volunteers make United Way work
By RON HALLMAN United Way of Addison President of United Way of County has a long tradition of Addison County Board helping people through raising The essence of the Misfunds, delivering programs sion Statement for our local and mobilizing the commuUnited Way is “to improve nity. This past year was one lives and strengthen our of great need in our commucommunity”....a powerful nity, but it was also a year of statement and a challenging tremendous generosity and goal. people engaging to help their For the past 27 years, I have neighbors. witnessed our United Way Without you — our donors, striving to attain this goal and volunteers, and friends — fulfill this mission through we could not touch so many HALLMAN programs and financial conhearts. We could not rise in tributions to many local agenunison to be a greater comcies that serve some of our most vulnerable munity and to answer the calls for help. We neighbors; supporting quality childcare for thank you for your support and we encourchildren, shelter for women in abusive situ- age you to continue to help us make a difations, healthcare for the uninsured, hous- ference. Please give as generously as you ing for the homeless and food for families are able so that we can achieve our vision who need some extra help and so much of a strong and healthy Addison County for more…. all.